


The Mother And Child Reunion

by Alara J Rogers (AlaraJRogers)



Category: Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman | Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1989-04-15
Updated: 1989-04-15
Packaged: 2018-12-06 01:01:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11589786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlaraJRogers/pseuds/Alara%20J%20Rogers
Summary: Sosai X is less sympathetic (if that's even possible) to Gel Sadra's desire to reconnect with her mother. As a result, Gel Sadra goes off script. Things happen differently. Nobody dies.





	The Mother And Child Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> My God, what can I say about this thing? I wrote it in the late 80's/early 90's or something. Gatchaman's the only fandom I've ever actually considered myself to have truly left and yet I still love Gel Sadra and mourn how few fics there are about her. Note that my writing skills were less then than they are now; I've cleaned up *some* of the "endless ellipses" problem but some might remain. Also, canon was sexist and there are strong implications of homophobia and transphobia in it; I've always been very clear that I don't approve of any of that, but it still appears in the story because canon. 
> 
> This was intended to be the kickoff for an alternate universe, which is what all the weirdness at the end with the twins is, but I never wrote another story in it, and am pretty sure I never will. Take this as a standalone then.
> 
> Note also: a lot of fansubs misgender Gel Sadra. There is literally no in-series evidence that she is trans, intersex or non-binary; she is visually depicted as female in a scene where she is naked. But because she was the successor to a nonbinary character and she was given a male voice, a lot of Japanese articles about the show at the time gendered her as male, and the fansubs I've seen do also. I'd be cool with a nonbinary headcanon for Gel Sadra, but she shows no signs of identifying as *male* and frankly I find the assumption sexist. I assume her to identify as female because Berg Katse was nonbinary and it kind of sucks if you have three main villains and two of them are nonbinary and there are no nonbinary "good guys". Also because she dresses as a man in order to be taken seriously and get information, but she dresses as a woman to be pretty for her mommy, which says a lot about how she identifies. If your exposure to this fandom has primarily been through those fansubs... my Gel Sadra is female and as far as I'm concerned there's no canon evidence suggesting otherwise.

## The Mother And Child Reunion

### (Is Only Emotion Away)

Perhaps it began with the schizoid split between the sub-brains of an alien, and the decisions that followed. 

Perhaps it began when the radiant light enveloped the falling broken mutant, and he vanished before ever striking the lava. Or perhaps when his lost daughter awakened, screaming, with fire in her brain. All of those were beginnings. 

But perhaps the most significant of beginnings was the child-woman's dream.

* * *

Moving through a big, incomprehensible place, with high walls, looking for the most important person in the world. Huge people strode by her, but none of them were the one.

"Mama," she called. "Mama, where are you?" 

And then blinding, terrifying light filled the sky, and she cringed back against a hard, unyielding surface. "Mama, mama," she whimpered. "Save me, mama!" 

But her savior did not come. 

The light filled everything, and she was blinded. Then she was pitching forward, falling into darkness, into dark water, screaming, as overhead a shadow woman reached out her arms and shrieked, "Sammie!" 

And then, the water strangled her.

* * *

With a scream, Gel Sadra awoke. 

The moon streaming in through the gauze curtains of her bed lent an aura of unreality to everything. She switched on the light. She was in her bed. Not drowning. "A dream," she whispered. "It was only a dream." 

She had had that same dream before, but never so vividly as tonight. "What a terrible dream," she murmured. "Why do I keep dreaming the same thing, over and over? What does it mean? I'm so small in the dream... I must be a child. Thrown from-- is it a boat? And on the deck, over and over, the image of a woman, holding her arms out to me... Who _is_ she?..." She thought about it, wondering. "Was I _ever_ a child?" Gel Sadra was not stupid; she knew that normal human beings passed through stages of growth, from infant to child to adult. But she could not remember her own childhood-- her memory began to haze when she tried to remember farther than the day she took control of Galactor. "Why can't I remember?" Her whole life seemed no more than a year long. Surely she was someone else before this? 

"Someone else...that woman screamed, 'Sammie!' Was that my name when I was a child? But then...who was that woman? She must have been my mother!" Gel Sadra did not understand mothers very well, but she knew that all human beings had one-- why would she be an exception? "But if that woman was my mother...where is she now? Why don't I remember her? Mothers aren't supposed to leave their children... Why can't I remember anything else from my childhood? Where did it go?" She pulled her own hair in frustration. "Why can't I remember? Why can't I?" 

She got up, pulled her costume out of the closet and began to dress. The clock told her it was late at night, but Sosai never slept...if anyone would know the truth of her past, it was him. What had happened to her childhood? To her mother? Why couldn't she remember?

* * *

Sosai X was not pleased. "GEL SADRA," he rumbled. "WHY HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME?"

"Forgive me, Sosai-sama," she said. "I had a dream--" 

"ANOTHER OF YOUR STUPID NIGHTMARES? FOOL! WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WANT TO BE BORED WITH SUCH TRIVIAL NONSENSE?" 

"No, this is different, Sosai!" Gel Sadra argued. "I dreamed of my mother, Sosai. I dreamed I was a child, and there was a bright light and I fell into the water, and my mother was calling my name. Why did I dream this, Sosai? Why don't I remember being a child?" 

"YOU FOOL! NOBODY REMEMBERS BEING A CHILD. CHILDREN ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE!" 

"But Sosai! My men remember being children-- people write books about it-- why don't I?" 

"I SEE WE HAVE A MISUNDERSTANDING HERE," X said. "VERY WELL, GEL SADRA. I WILL SHOW YOU YOUR TRUE NATURE." 

The viewscreen that Sosai used to educate Gel Sadra lit, and she saw a tank in the center of a chamber full of eerie purple light. Deja vu and emotions Gel Sadra could not name assaulted her-- she _knew_ this place! In the center of the tank was a child, a little girl. As Gel Sadra watched, with mixed fascination and horror, the child's body changed and grew. "YOU WERE AN INFANT, NOT EVEN TRULY HUMAN YET, WHEN I TOOK YOU AND MADE YOU INTO A MUTANT," X said, as the girl became a teen, reached the full growth of a human woman-- and contined to grow, in size and strength more like a man than a woman, no longer a normal human. "I TOOK SOMETHING THAT WAS NOTHING AND GAVE IT STRENGTH AND POWER, CREATING YOU, GEL SADRA," X said. "YOU OWE YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME." 

"I understand that, Sosai-- but what about my mother? What happened to her?" 

"FOOL! YOU HAVE NO MOTHER! YOU ARE THE IMMORTAL GEL SADRA, MY TOOL AND CREATION, AND _NOTHING MORE!_ WHAT YOU USED TO BE IS _IRRELEVANT!_ " 

"What happened to her?" Gel Sadra screamed, begging. "Sosai, I must know! What became of my mother?" 

"THEN WATCH, FOOL, AND LEARN THE TRUTH!" 

Half of a cruise ship sank into the water. "YOUR PARENTS WERE ABOARD THE SAME SHIP AS YOU. IT SANK INTO THE WATER, AND ALL ABOARD WERE LOST, WHEN I CAME FOR YOU. YOU WOULD HAVE DIED, TOO, IF I HAD NOT SAVED YOU. YOUR MOTHER IS _DEAD_ , GEL SADRA! FORGET ABOUT HER! I AM THE ONLY PARENT YOU HAVE!" 

"Yes. I understand," Gel Sadra said humbly. She bowed low, and left. 

But who _was_ her mother, in reality? Gel Sadra was not disputing X-sama, of course-- but was it possible that her mother had survived? Gel Sadra felt certain that her mother wasn't dead. She had learned to trust her hunches-- they had saved her life often in the past. 

So how would she go about finding her mother? 

Though she had no clear conception of time, of the passage of weeks and months, everybody else in Galactor relied on them. She checked Galactor's records, trying to find out how long she herself had been in power-- about a year and three-foruths. All right. Then she looked up all the ships that had sunk within a year of that time. None of the names were immediately familiar to her, of course, but Gel Sadra had other ways of getting information. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and one of the names she'd seen began to tug at her mind. When she looked back down at the page, the name jumped out at her-- _Elizabeth Moore_ , out of Seaside in North America. It did not occur to Gel Sadra to think this a strange way of getting information-- she had nothing to compare it to, and it worked for her. 

The Seaside Police Department should have records of the survivors. That was where she would go.

* * *

Her daughter plunged into the dark water, screaming " _Mama!_ " Pandora shrieked Sammie's name... 

Her eyes opened to darkness, and a pounding on her door. "Dr. Pandora! Dr. Pandora!" 

The voice was familiar, part of this reality, not that one. Pandora sighed in relief. "Ken, is that you?" 

"Are you all right?" Ken's voice asked. 

_I must have screamed Sammie's name out loud..._ "I'm fine," she said. "Don't worry." 

He sounded only slightly relieved. "Oh... well, all right. I'm sorry to bother you." 

"Thank you anyway, Ken," Pandora called to him. 

"Good night, Doctor." 

But Pandora could not get the nightmare out of her head. It had been so vivid-- she had remembered once again her mad dash through the _Elizabeth Moore_ 's corridors, she and Domingo screaming for Sammie-- had seen once more Domingo vaporized as the golden form of Sosai X smashed through-- crying desperately, she had reached the surface, in time to see her Sammie pitched overboard, and then, before she could jump in after her, being thrown back by the pitching of the bulkhead, away from her daughter, away-- 

"Oh, Sammie," she whispered. "I can't make myself believe you're really dead, no matter how many times I remember..." She turned to the photographs. Her and Domingo's wedding portrait, the three of them posed with Sammie, Sammie in the adorable little sailor suit she'd worn the day the water had taken her away.. It was that photograph she lifted now. "No matter how many times," she murmured. "Could it possibly be my gift, telling me the truth?... No, I shouldn't let myself hope. More likely it's just a mother's brokenhearted dreams." She put it back down. "I'll visit Domingo's grave tomorrow," she decided. "Perhaps he can help me to understand..."

* * *

"I'm looking for a survivor of the _Elizabeth Moore_ accident two years ago," Gel Sadra said. 

"The _Elizabeth Moore?_ I don't think there were any survivors of that one," the clerk said. 

"Idiot! There were. I'm the living proof." Gel Sadra had grown more certain with every moment that her mother lived. It was information that she did not question, coming from the shadowy realm of truths without facts that she relied on. 

"Really?" The clerk looked at her. "Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, there was a lifeboat that made it to safety. Were you on that?" 

"No. My mother was." Actually she had no idea whether her mother had been or not, but it made sense. 

"Fine. Tell me her name, and I'll look her up in the survivors' list." 

"You don't understand." Gel Sadra was getting irritated. "I came here to find _out_ her name." 

"You don't know your own mother's name?" 

"I want you to look up all the female survivors." 

"All right, then. Maybe we can backtrack from your name-- or don't you remember that, either?" 

"My name wouldn't help and it's none of your business. Just look them up!" 

"All right." The man began flipping through the book. "There was only one female survivor, I think-- ah, here she is. A mother with a child, too." 

"That's her!" 

"Did you have a younger sister?" 

"No. The child's me." 

"The child _can't_ be you-- this must be the wrong woman. Look, this child's a little girl--" Gel Sadra was disguised as a man-- "and only three years old." 

An infant... "Yes, that's me!" 

The clerk burst out laughing. "That's ridiculous! Little children don't grow up into adults overnight." He tapped his forehead significantly. "Are you sure you're quite all right up there?" 

Fury welled up, but it would wait. Her _mother--_ "I'm positive. Just tell me her name!" 

The clerk studied the book, which Gel Sadra could see had glossy passport pictures in it. "Ah, here we go. The name was... Pandora." 

"Pandora!!" Gel Sadra snatched the book. 3 photographs were ranged on the page, a man, woman and child. "'Dr. Domingo Pandora'," she read, her voice shaking. "How..." 

Oblivious to her reaction, the clerk was going on. "Yes, I remember them now. Both the woman and the man were famous members of ISO. I think they were... was it cyberneticists?" 

Gel Sadra ignored him. "Dr. Sylvia Pandora!" It was her, it was her... And then Gel Sadra's eyes fell on the child at the bottom, and a terrifying sense of recognition flooded her mind. There was no doubt left in her mind, none at all. "This Sammie Pandora-- that's me, that's me!!" Sobbing, she slammed her fists down on the table. "I must have known this, known this all the time!" 

The clerk had gotten out of his chair and was backing away from her, but Gel Sadra could spare no attention for him. She ran from the room, her mind reeling in shock. _Dr. Pandora-- is my--!_ How often had she come so close to killing that woman?  _No, it can't be, she can't be, she can't..._ And yet Gel Sadra knew she was. That strange feeling that had come over her, seeing Pandora-- it had been recognition!

_Oh, what am I going to do? What am I going to do?_

The first thing she thought of was going to Sosai for advice. But hard on the heels of that came the memory of Sosai's anger at her for wanting to know who her mother was at all. Sosai would shout at her and call her a fool-- he wouldn't try to help her, wouldn't even try to understand how she felt. It had always been that way-- Sosai told her she needed to be hard and ruthless, to feel no emotions but anger. Her nightmares, her need for comfort in the middle of the night-- these were weaknesses, Sosai said, and had no place in the leader of Galactor. Even Berg Katse, pathetic fool though he'd been, had been stronger than she. 

So her emotions were a weakness. And yet Gel Sadra could not help but want to be comforted, could not help but want someone to love her... Love. It was a strange word, a strange concept, one of the 4 motives Gel Sadra recognized. She did not understand it, but she used it. Love was a motive that made people sacrifice their own desires for the happiness or well-being of someone else. By that definition, Gel Sadra loved Sosai X-- she was constantly doing things she didn't want to do, for his sake-- and he loved her, sacrificing his time and energy to rescue her from Gatchaman and things like that. But Sosai's was not a comforting sort of love. Whereas the love between a mother and daughter was. 

This presented an idea to Gel Sadra, and she reasoned it out carefully. She understood two motives for doing things-- power and revenge. Love was another motive, but not one she understood, and fear was very powerful but only came up in cases of coercion. Power was the one she understood the best, she thought. Everyone wanted power. All of Galactor operated on desire for power. Any sensible person would seek power... unless some other motive interfered. 

As Gel Sadra understood it, ISO fought for revenge. Well, maybe not ISO in general-- she really didn't understand people like Nambu at all-- but the Gatchaman team surely did. She knew that Galactor had killed Condor Joe's parents, it was in the files, and a suspicion recorded by Katse, that Red Impulse was the Eagle's father, had been confirmed by one of her own operations. She wasn't sure about the others, but it seemed logical to her that they were _all_ fighting for revenge. Galactor had hurt and humiliated them... and killed people they loved. Their parents, because the love between a parent and a child was the strongest in the world. 

Excited now, she carefully continued her line of reasoning. Dr. Pandora was her mother. Mothers were very much like their children-- Dr. Pandora would of course want power. But the place to get power was Galactor, and she _couldn't_ join Galactor-- because she thought Galactor had killed her child! 

Of course! Dr. Pandora didn't know that little Sammie had survived, to become Gel Sadra; all she'd seen was the water closing over her daughter's head. So if Gel Sadra told her the truth-- her desire for revenge on Galactor would be gone. She would want power, as her daughter did-- and of course Gel Sadra would give it to her. The two of them could rule the world together. And because Pandora loved her daughter, she would want to help her, and comfort her, and give her advice. 

And Sosai was afraid of that, because Sosai was jealous! Sosai was afraid Gel Sadra would love her mother more than him! 

Well, Gel Sadra could see an easy way out of _that*_ one. Once she had recruited Dr. Pandora, it would be a fait accompli-- Sosai couldn't do anything about it, and anyway, she would be so useful to their plans that he wouldn't want to. Then he would praise her, as he did so rarely lately. 

But how to do it? Sosai would stop her if she tried to have Pandora brought to any of their bases, and if Gel Sadra tried to go to Pandora, Gatchaman would take her captive. No, she needed somewhere else, somewhere where Sosai couldn't see... She had it. Berg Katse's old villa in France, that she'd inherited when she took control of Galactor. The place was decorated in the worst taste imaginable-- Gel Sadra kept meaning to redecorate, but never had the time-- and so she spent very little time there. But some of the rooms were nice, and it was out of the way. That was the best idea. She'd have Pandora brought to her by semibal and then she would tell her the truth.

* * *

Neither of their bodies had been recovered. Pandora had bought Domingo a headstone anyway-- she needed someplace to go, to commemorate his life-- but it had seemed too final, to buy one for Sammie. She could not make herself believe Sammie was dead. 

She sat by Domingo's for half an hour, talking to him, telling him about her job, how much she missed him... and then she said, "You know, in some ways it was easier for me to accept that you'd gone, Domingo. I loved you-- I'll always love you-- but I can accept that you're forever gone to me. But I cannot believe our daughter is dead..." She began to cry, leaning her head on the stone. "Never... Sammie... my little Sammie..." 

"Excuse me," a quiet, elderly voice said. 

Quickly Pandora wiped her eyes. She turned. "Yes?" 

"That name you were crying out-- 'Sammie'-- that is your child?" 

_What does he want?_ "Yes... yes, it is." 

"So I see... And you are Dr. Sylvia Pandora?" 

_If he were Galactor, he wouldn't bother to ask about Sammie._ "Yes..." 

"Then I have some wonderful news for you. I was on the same ship as you and the man you grieve for, there. By the grace of God, I was permitted to survive... and I also saved your daughter. She is not dead!" 

_Not dead??_ "Where-- where is she? Where's Sammie? My daughter--" She was practically on top of him in desperation. The man held up his hands. 

"Be calm, please. I've been taking care of her, and coming here every day since I learned who her parents were. I've come to take you to her, if you want to go." 

"Yes-- yes! Please, let's hurry!" 

"There's no rush. Calm down, child." The elderly man put his arm around her. "Don't worry. We'll go to your daughter."

* * *

* * *

Gel Sadra received the report with growing nervousness. She had sought out Domingo Pandora's grave, in hopes that Pandora would turn up there, and sure enough, Pandora had. Now all she had left to do was wait, with anxiety churning her up from the inside. _What if she doesn't love me?_

_Stupid! Of course she will. I ought to be more worried about what Sosai will say._ she berated herself. She ran through a mental checklist once more. _Pretty dress-- on? Check. Makeup-- on? Check. Do I have the facemask for dramatic effect? Maybe I ought to put it on now._ She looked at herself in the mirror. Normally she wore her costume, to appear frightening, but today she wanted to look beautiful instead. So she had chosen to wear a lovely, feminine gown in blue and purple that she'd found in Berg Katse's closet. What it had been doing there, she'd never know-- it wasn't quite her size, but it would do. Because Pandora had never seen her without her mask, she planned to wear a simple facemask, to show that she was indeed Gel Sadra, and then take it off. For the first time in her life, she wished she had a higher, more feminine voice. She tried imitating one, and got a cracking falsetto. Well, it didn't matter-- her mother would love her, no matter what she sounded like. 

Wouldn't she?

* * *

By the time the elderly man's car had driven into a semiballistic jet, and they'd taken off, Pandora knew that she was _not_ going to meet her daughter.  

How stupid could she be? If Galactor had done any research on her at all, they'd have discovered her loss. What kind of idiot went off with a total stranger in order to see a child that she _knew_ was dead? It was amazing, the lengths to which people would go to fool themselves-- but this time, perhaps, it would be the end of her. She had little doubt that she was being taken to captivity in some Galactor base, and the prospect terrified her. 

The jet shot up, terrifyingly fast, and came down with the same sort of speed, as semiballistics did. They landed somewhere, but before Pandora could get her bearings, they herded her into a helicopter. By the time the helicopter set down, it hadn't been more than 2 hours since she'd been taken captive-- far too soon for Dr. Nambu to start worrying about her. _They don't waste any time_ , she thought bitterly, and looked around herself in surprise. They were at the base of a large hill. Galactors bases were usually set into valleys, and for a moment Pandora almost hoped she had been mistaken _._

But then an "escort" of two men in Galactor greens arrived, and all doubt fled, along with all hope. 

There was a stone wall around the base of the hill, covered with intricately carved gargoyles. It looked climbable, but of course there was no way to tell what lay on the other side. The Galactors led Pandora through an ironwork gate, up a winding path, through a beautiful and immense garden. Pandora recognized a good half of the plants as being poisonous. _Rappacini's garden_ , she thought bitterly. _Whose daughter will I find in the garden? Certainly not mine..._

At the top of the hill stood a house-- it was designed like a villa, with open porches and crenellated balconies, but it was huge. There was a heavy hint of the dark opulence that had characterized many of the older Galactor bases, and the very fact that it looked like a house at all seemed to speak of the old days of Galactor. _It's a leftover, then._ They came up the steps, and the doors swung inward, admitting them to a vast and dimly lit hall. 

As the doors slid shut behind them, Pandora's eyes adjusted. "It's just like you Galactors to use a mother's hopes against her," she said bitterly. "Why did you feel the need to deceive me? I was alone-- you could simply have pulled guns and done away with this subterfuge." 

The elderly man chuckled. "I was given specific instructions on what to say. Now my part in this is finished. If you have any more questions, you must ask the one who comes." 

As he spoke, the far doors opened, and Pandora was swamped with "that feeling" again. It was not a sensation she could describe-- perhaps deja vu, a feeling of almost-recognition. The light streaming from the far doors was brilliant, and at first hid the dim form walking through it, but Pandora knew who it had to be-- and then, as she approached closer, it was confirmed. 

Gel Sadra. 

The woman was wearing a purple and blue gown instead of her usual costume, and the mask she wore covered only the top of her face, revealing long, pale gold hair that spilled down onto her shoulders and mostly bared arms. For several seconds the two of them faced each other, staring, while a dozen possible scenarios ran through Pandora's head. Then Gel Sadra pulled off her mask, revealing a beautiful but somewhat childish face. 

"Mother," she said into the silence. "You are my mother!" 

"What??" Oh, it was too bitter _._ "What kind of game is this? You'll have to do better than _that_ , Gel Sadra _._ " 

"This isn't a game! Mother, I am Sammie!" 

" _Sammie??_ " How dare Gel Sadra try to twist that name to her own perverted whims? "How do you know my daughter's name?" she demanded. "And how dare you come up with a ridiculous story like this? Do you think I wouldn't know my own daughter? My child was a _baby_ , Gel Sadra. How gullible do you think I _am?_ " 

"Don't you believe me, mother? Don't you feel it, too? That recognition-- I know you've felt it, mother..." 

"Don't call me mother!" 

"But you _are_ my mother! I'm Sammie!" 

Did the poor deluded mutant actually _believe_ it? "You _can't_ be Sammie. Sammie was--" 

"--a child, yes, I know. Sosai X had a glorious destiny planned for me, and there was no time for me to grow normally to adulthood. He took a child named Sammie Pandora and caused her to grow up, until Gel Sadra was born. That's me! I've only now learned that you are my mother." 

Could it be true? Could it possibly-- no, no! "You're lying, Gel Sadra! My Sammie was a sweet, gentle child, nothing like you!" 

"Nothing?" There were tears in the Galactor leader's eyes. "Mother, I used to have nightmares, didn't I? And you would come in, and comfort me, and rock me to sleep... Sosai wants me to be hard and ruthless, and that's necessary, I suppose, to rule the world, but I need someone to comfort me.. I have such terrible nightmares, and Sosai doesn't help me.." 

Horribly, Pandora was almost beginning to believe her. "I don't care about your nightmares! You're not my daughter!" she shouted desperately, trying to make it true. 

"Look over here!" Gel Sadra said, getting angry. "I'll show you proof!" She walked to a wall and flicked a switch. Panels slid aside, revealing a viewscreen. Gel Sadra slipped in a tape, and the image of a child, a little girl floating naked and unconscious in a glass tank, appeared. Pandora gasped in horror-- the child was Sammie! 

"Watch, mother," Gel Sadra said, and Pandora watched, unable to tear her eyes away. The child began to grow, her hair getting longer, her tiny body changing and elongating until Sammie as a young woman stood in the tank. Then her body continued to grow, reached Gel Sadra's size-- and the face, the face was unmistakably Gel Sadra's _._

A hand fell on her shoulder. "Mother. Now do you believe?" 

Pandora recoiled, struck Gel Sadra, who staggered back. "Why did you do that, mother!" Gel Sadra cried. 

"You're not my daughter! Sammie is dead! I'd _rather_ she be dead than be you, Gel Sadra!" 

"What? No! Mother, we could rule the world together, the two of us." 

"Didn't you hear me? You're _not mine!_ I have nothing to do with you!"

Gel Sadra's face transformed into a mask of unreasoning rage. "Very well, if you won't admit you're my mother, then I'll treat you like a prisoner instead! Guards!" 

They stepped forward. "Haa, Gel Sadra-sama?" 

"Take her down to the dungeons and lock her in. You can do anything you like to her!" 

Suddenly Pandora remembered...

* * *

They were testing Sammie for psi, she and Mandy, and Sammie was being uncooperative. Sitting in the chair, with the electrodes taped to her, she squirmed. "You _promised_ , mommy," she said. "You said, I get ice cream. Where?" 

"Just _think_ about it, Sammie. Just think about the ice cream, and see if you can tell what box it's in." 

"No! Don't _wanna._ Want ice cream!" 

"But if you just think about it--" 

"Don't _wanna_ think! Want ice cream! You promised! I hate you, I hate you!" 

"Sammie!" 

The readings spiked suddenly as Sammie tore free from the electrodes, going for the correct box, as Pandora dove at her. Sammie flipped the box open and grabbed the sundae cup. "Ha! I beat you," she said spitefully. " _My_ ice cream!" And ran, Pandora pelting after her.

* * *

...After Sammie's death, she had not thought of the bad things. Sammie had been a _good_ little girl, a beautiful sweet child-- there was no point in remembering her occasional tantrums. But when Pandora saw Gel Sadra's expression, she remembered-- and knew. 

Gel Sadra was telling the truth. 

"Sammie," she whispered under her breath, as the guards carried her off. But Gel Sadra did not hear her.

* * *

Back in one of the bedrooms, Gel Sadra put on her costume, except for the mask, and lay down, debating seriously whether to get drunk or not. The pain in her abdomen had gotten worse, though, like an animal gnawing at her-- it always did when she suffered a disappointment, and this one was worse than most. She quickly gulped down her pills-- and that let out getting drunk. She had been told that if she drank liquor after taking her pills, she would fall asleep and never wake up, and it was not an idea she appreciated. 

As the pain abated, the feeling of well-being the pills brought flooded over her. Pandora could not keep rejecting her. She had to realize, sooner or later, that she and Gel Sadra were mother and daughter. She was just in shock now, or something. Gel Sadra could go back and try to convince her again. Yes, that was what she'd do.

* * *

Pandora's mind was racing, planning, as her guards "escorted" her roughly downstairs. If Gel Sadra was Sammie... The plan she was devising was dangerous, and ran a high risk of getting her killed-- but it was no worse than being a helpless prisoner of Galactor was, and she was the only one who could try this. And if she succeeded... Gel Sadra was Sammie. It tore at her mother's soul to admit it, but she believed it now. Gel Sadra was also desperate for Pandora to accept her, and that gave Pandora a weapon. If Sosai X had taken a small child and made her an adult, that adult would still have the emotions of a child. Gel Sadra must think of X as her father, protector, mentor, personal god, all rolled into one. That alone was why she served him. What could Sammie know of power? Nothing, but when X told her it was what she wanted it would sound good to her. Shock and grief had caused Pandora to mishandle the situation before. She was so used to thinking of Gel Sadra as an incarnation of evil, when the truth was that Gel Sadra was innocent, too innocent to understand the difference between good and evil. But apparently she valued Pandora's opinion. Apparently their relationship meant something to her. If Pandora could only _show_ Gel Sadra that X was evil, that what she was doing was wrong. 

Her mind was brought roughly back to her present circumstances by the guards marching her into a cell and pushing her against a wall. She twisted her head away as one of the guards leaned into her face and leered, licking his lips. "Gel Sadra- sama said we could do whatever we want with you," he said, his breath fetid in her face. "So that's what just what we're gonna do, and there's nothing you can do about it, bitch. Get it?" 

Pandora tried to pull away, uselessly, as the other man closed in on her as well. Had she just been thinking Gel Sadra was _innocent?_ She abandoned thought of her plan, sick at heart. If Gel Sadra was capable of ordering something like this... killing was one thing, but _this..._ how could there be anything left of Sammie's innocence in her at all? 

Both men were bigger and stronger than she was-- simply putting up a struggle would not save her, all it would do was whet their disgusting appetites. Fighting nausea and horror, Pandora forced herself to remain still, not squirming or resisting as they ran meaty hands across her body. _I have to let them get distracted-- I'll only have one chance and I don't dare waste it._ She only wished there was some way to distract them rather than putting up with this foulness. Hands fumbled under her dress, and it was all she could do not to try to yank free right then. She twisted her head out of the way of a slobbering kiss, and it landed on her neck. Where was her chance? She couldn't bear much more of this. One of the men pressed right next to her, pinning her arms with his weight, as he pulled his pants down-- and there was her chance. _Now!_

Her knee came up and struck savagely into the exposed region. He screamed and staggered away from her, clutching his genitals, as she grabbed the other man's swinging arm and used his momentum to throw him. He got to his feet, and she chopped at his neck, dropping him. The first man, the one she'd kneed, had recovered somewhat and was coming toward her with a murderous expression, hands outstretched. Her foot caught him in the same place her knee had. He shrieked in agony as blood spurted and stained her shoe, and Pandora felt abruptly sick. She ran from the cell, through the open door, collapsed on the floor and was violently ill. 

When she could think straight again, she got to her feet, weak from vomiting. The man in there she'd kicked had stopped screaming, but his moans of agony were just as bad. Her shoe was stained with his blood, now, and she wanted to kick it off, to be rid of it-- but she'd need it to escape. She headed up the stairs, her spirit bruised and desolate. Sammie was beyond her reach forever. All she could do was to try to escape and report to Dr. Nambu.

* * *

Gel Sadra was startled to see the door of the cell wide open. What were those idiots thinking of? She stepped inside, and saw the two men lying on the floor. _What--_ One man was lying in a pool of blood, his pants down around his knees. Gingerly, with one boot tip, Gel Sadra flipped him over. He was still moaning, and when she looked at his exposed crotch, she could see why. But what had his pants been doing down-- 

\--oh. Of course. She was being naive again. When she gave orders that they could do whatever they liked, she meant for them to roughhouse Pandora a little, not to do _this!_ With savage fury, she kicked the dying man-- how _dare_ he try to do _that_ to her mother! Animal! She pulled her gun and blasted him and his silent companion. Then she turned and pelted up the stairs. If those bastards had let Pandora escape on her--! 

As she cleared the stairs, she headed toward the door-- and that was when she heard the scream.

* * *

Pandora found her way out of the base-- which was designed as if it actually was a person's home-- with relative ease. Outside, she took a deep breath and began running around the side of the house. She knew better than to cut through the deadly garden-- some of the plants there could kill with a single scratch. She didn't want to head directly down the path to the gate, though-- she could see a pair of guards there-- so she circled the mansion, finding that the deadliness of the garden decreased the farther she got from the main path. When the garden had begun to look tame, she found another path meandering down to the wall, and began running down it. 

Abruptly the ground in front of her lifted. She tripped and sprawled, as a vaguely familiar, high-pitched male voice laughed. _What--?_ Pandora spun, and saw what she had not seen before-- two posts, hidden in the foliage but with an infrared beam clearly exposed between them. The laughter was coming from speakers set into the posts, creating a stereo effect and making it actually sound as if someone was there. 

"Welcome to my humble abode," the voice continued. It was too fast, the voice of a hypermanic person, and she abruptly recognized it from briefing tapes-- the voice of the late Berg Katse. "I don't really appreciate unexpected guests, but since it would be inhospitable for me to simply leave you to your own devices, I'll send my pet to entertain you until I get back! Hahahaha!" 

At that point, a thing with numerous tentacles heaved itself out of the garden and shot its tendrils directly at Pandora. That was when she screamed.  

Gel Sadra followed the noises around the side of the villa, to see with horror Pandora stumbling through the garden, desperately trying to outrun a small mecha. The tentacles were gaining on her-- they were going to kill her! _No!_

Pulling her gun, Gel Sadra raced forward with a cry and fired, the gun on its highest setting. One of the tentacles blistered and thrashed wildly. Gel Sadra fired, again and again, convincing the thing to turn and go for her. She stood her ground and shot at it, destroying tentacles and bruising the tougher armored body-- until her energy cell ran out. For a second, Gel Sadra stared at the useless gun. She pointed it again, pulled the trigger-- and nothing came out. And the thing was still active, and coming directly at her.

Gel Sadra shrieked, threw the gun and ran, crashing through the flower beds and vine-entwined bushes of the garden. Fast as she was, though, even damaged the mecha was a lot faster. "Tasukete!" Gel Sadra screamed, forgetting that none of her men were close enough to hear and save her. "Help me!" 

Pandora had stood frozen for several seconds as the thing began lumbering after Gel Sadra. _She's risking her life for me... Sammie..._ Then Gel Sadra screamed for help, and all control broke. Pandora scooped up rocks, sticks, anything, and charged forward. 

"Yaaa!" She hurled stuff at the thing, trying desperately to get its attention. What was this? Gel Sadra's discarded gun! She picked it up, flipped open the power cell-- which was too drained to operate the gun, but never too drained to explode-- and quickly pulled two wires loose, reattaching them crossed. Then she hurled it. "Duck, Gel Sadra!" 

The gun exploded in midair, though, before it had quite reached the mecha, and so it didn't do as much damage as she'd hoped. Now it was after _her_ again. She ran, and saw Gel Sadra frantically motioning at her. "This way, bring it this way! I've got a plan!" 

Gel Sadra's plan had to be better than none at all, so Pandora circled, but she was tiring, growing more and more exhausted with every stride. Gel Sadra moved in to meet her, until the two of them were running parallel, the tentacles hot on their heels.  "We're... heading... into the poison plants!" Pandora gasped. "Got to.. turn!" 

"No!" Gel Sadra turned on a diagonal toward Pandora, intercepting and scooping her up while still leading the monster in the same direction. Pandora gasped as Gel Sadra lifted and carried her, still running, as if _she_ were the child. "If... I throw you... toward that tree... could you catch it?" Gel Sadra panted, now struggling for breath with her added burden. 

"Yes!" 

"Then, _now!_ " 

With strength that was not quite human, Gel Sadra heaved Pandora up toward a tree. She grabbed a branch, pulled herself onto it, and watched as Gel Sadra knelt and pounded her fists on what looked like a tree stump. Gel Sadra shouted, "Jump down and get cover!" 

Pandora leapt behind a large rock, and seconds later Gel Sadra fell over the top of the rock, almost on top of Pandora. Then there was an explosion, Both of them pressed themselves to the ground as shrapnel and a shockwave wind blew over their heads, the lee of the rock sheltering them. When the light and wind died, Pandora lifted her head. There was a huge hole in the garden, and smoking wreckage, but no mecha. 

"Idiot Berg Katse," Gel Sadra said. "If Sosai hadn't made me study the defenses of this place, we could have both been killed." She turned to Pandora. "Mother, I saved your life. I killed the men who tried to do... _that_ to you. Won't you believe me now?"  

Even with the grotesque voice, Pandora could hear the plaintive words as if they were Sammie's. She looked at her daughter, and tears filled her eyes. Gel Sadra, the heartless leader of Galactor, had risked her life to save Pandora's. Didn't that make her truly Sammie after all? It broke her heart, to have to hurt her child this way-- but Gel Sadra had taken the mantle of an adult, and Pandora had to do what she had to do in order to save the world. 

"Yes, I believe you," she said in a flat, monotonal voice. Gel Sadra didn't catch the hint. 

"Then you'll join me!" she cried, overjoyed. 

"No." Pandora got to her feet. 

"No? What do you mean, 'no', mother?" Gel Sadra also stood. "You admit that I'm Sammie. There's no more reason for you to hate Galactor! You can join us now!" 

"What makes you think I want to join Galactor? For that matter, what makes you think I don't still hate it-- Gel Sadra?" 

"But... why should you? The only reason you hated us was because you thought Galactor had killed me." 

"What makes you think that's why I hate Galactor?" 

Gel Sadra stood, lost in confusion. Pandora went on, "When I believed Galactor had murdered my daughter, I had a very personal reason to hate it, yes. But there are reasons less personal, not the least of which is that Galactor is _evil!_ You murder wantonly, you care nothing for the lives lost in pursuit of your sick dream-- how many people have you personally killed, Gel Sadra? _You_ are evil!" 

"No! What do you mean, 'evil'-- that word means nothing! Anyone can make it mean what they want. What do people's lives matter?" 

 " _All_ that matters is people's lives!" Pandora shouted. "You're too young to have experienced it, Gel Sadra-- but there are people who love each other in this world. There are good people, who help others. There are gifted, talented people who help the human race. But you don't care! You just go on, killing indiscriminately-- how many lives have you destroyed, Gel Sadra? How many children have you taken from their parents, as I thought you'd been taken from me? How many times have you repeated the misery I have suffered, to lose a child, to lose a husband? What about your father, Gel Sadra? Do you know what happened to him?" 

"No, but I--" 

"He was _vaporized!_ He was destroyed, by your precious Sosai X! Your daddy, who loved you, who used to take you to the park on weekends, who showed everybody pictures of his little girl-- he was so proud of you--" Pandora's voice broke. "Gel Sadra, you're only a child. You were taken in by Sosai X's words-- one can hardly blame you for what you've done. But now-- Gel Sadra, if you wish to be treated like an adult you must act like one, take the consequences like one." 

"I _am_ an adult!" 

"All right, then. Sosai X is evil! If you want my love, you must reject him. If you want me to care for you like a mother again, you must fight him, because I'm sworn to destroy him, and how can even a mother love what is evil? I _want_ to love you-- you're my baby Sammie-- but as long as you are Galactor leader Gel Sadra then I cannot! As long as you serve Sosai X we must fight! Do you understand?" 

Gel Sadra stared at her. "I don't know what to do," she whispered. 

"You can--" 

"Shut up! You've said enough!" At the expression on Pandora's face, Gel Sadra's face crumpled. "I'm sorry... but I _want_ to rule the world! Sosai promised me... Perhaps I do have to be hard and ruthless, completely, as he said." Her voice turned hard, and Pandora's heart sank. _It didn't work... I've lost her._ "I'm too confused. You say one thing, Sosai says another-- perhaps I will bring you to Sosai and let you debate with _him._ Then I can decide." 

Terror ran like an electric shock through Pandora's body. "Gel Sadra, no! If you bring me to Sosai X, it's my death warrant, he'll kill me!" 

"No, he won't. You're my mother! He wouldn't kill you. You don't understand him, Mother." Gel Sadra took Pandora's arm in a firm grip. "That's what I'll do. I'll bring you to him." 

It was useless to argue. Pandora felt a wave of unassailable despair. Her daughter was gone forever, in a manner far more horrible than simply drowning, and she herself would be destroyed by Sosai X.

* * *

They hadn't been looking for Dr. Pandora. 

The Gatchaman team had been dispatched to the Andean base because strange energy fluxes had been picked up there, energy that might indicate X's presence. They knew X was considerably more mobile now than he'd been during the war with Berg Katse-- they had already clashed with him personally, or as personally as one could get with a golden spaceship, once-- and so it was perfectly possible that this base was where he was located. 

None of them expected to see Gel Sadra's round craft arrive-- unfortunately, they weren't in the New God Phoenix at the time, or they could have tried to shoot it down. However, it gave them an idea. While Jun, Jimpei and Ryu continued to look for another entrance, Ken and Joe headed up the cliffside and found the bay that the craft was entering. It was too late to get inside-- the doors had slammed shut before even they could leap. But Ken shook his head. "It's still too good an opportunity to waste," he said. "Gatchaman to G-3. Come in." 

"Haven't found anything yet, Ken," she replied. 

"We have. Come on up." 

By the time the others got there, Ken and Joe had begun the laborious work of cutting their way through the bay doors. Jun, Jinpei and Ryu set their laser frequencies to heterodyne with the other two, and the work went much faster-- in minutes, they had melted a hole big enough for Jinpei to stick his head into and peer in. "There's nobody there," he reported. "Just Gel Sadra's escape ship." 

"Okay," Ken said. "Get out of the way." 

In another few minutes, the hole was big enough to permit even Ryu's entry. The five of them leapt down, and Jun motioned with her head at the craft. "Ken, what do you want me to do with that?" 

Ken thought a second. "Rig the controls. I want her alive, so I want her to be able to get out, but after she's clear of the base the thing should land itself, so we can get at her. And check if there's anything valuable in there-- we'll be too occupied with Gel Sadra to check later." 

"Roger." Jun vanished into Gel Sadra's ship, and the rest of them headed out.

* * *

"GEL SADRA, YOU HAVE DISOBEYED ME!" X thundered. "I ORDERED YOU TO _FORGET_ ABOUT YOUR MOTHER!" 

"But, Sosai..." 

"ENOUGH!" 

Pandora could see a drastic change in Gel Sadra's mannerisms as she addressed X. Here was where her little girl had gone, usually obedient, sometimes rebellious. It was precisely Sammie's obedient nature that X had perverted, making Gel Sadra obedient to _him._ Gel Sadra's voice rose in pitch and her whole manner changed, becoming more humble, self-abasing. 

"I WILL FORGIVE YOU, BECAUSE PANDORA IS A USEFUL PRISONER. YOU WILL PUT HER IN A CELL, GEL SADRA, AND FORGET SHE EXISTS. I WILL CONDUCT THE INTERROGATION OF HER PERSONALLY. YOU ARE TO HAVE _NO_ CONTACT WITH HER, FROM THIS MOMENT FORTH!" 

"Hai. I understand, Sosai," Gel Sadra whispered, her voice breaking. Pandora stared at her emptily-- she was going to do it. She was going to let Sosai X torture and kill Pandora, and never question.

"Sammie," she whispered, already tortured. 

Gel Sadra heard, and anger took shape within her grief. _He **is** jealous, isn't he? Why? I was loyal..._ But she remembered Pandora's words, and wondered. Perhaps Sosai had been wiser than she'd thought, to forbid her contact with her mother? 

And perhaps Pandora had been wiser than she'd thought, to warn her against Sosai X? 

Gel Sadra turned, a plan already forming. She needed time to think, to consider her mother's words, and if Sosai locked Dr. Pandora up, Gel Sadra would never get a chance to see her again... and what if her mother was _right?_ Gel Sadra would have betrayed her. But if Pandora were to escape-- well, Sosai would yell, he always did, but she'd live through that. And she would have time to consider her mother's words. But it had to _look_ as if Pandora had escaped all by herself, and so Gel Sadra was forced to play it out. "You and you, take Dr. Pandora to her cell." Those two men were little better than hydroencephalic morons-- surely the person who had defeated those men back at Katse's villa should have no problem taking them out. She thought desperately at her mother, _This is the best I can do! Kill them and escape!_

Pandora turned astonished eyes toward Gel Sadra-- 

\--and then the two men guarding her dropped dead. 

"N-nanto?" Gel Sadra gasped, as the familiar laughter rang out. Several men moved to cover Pandora with their guns. 

A shadow fell across the wall from a balcony. "Jittai o misezu ni shinobiyoru shiroi kage," a man's voice called out. The white shadow that slips in unseen... "Kagaku Ninja Tai _Gatchaman!_ " 

After that it was chaos. X was booming orders to his men, something about not letting Pandora get away, and Gel Sadra could see a tight knot of men herding her mother away. The ninja team had come in full force after their leader's dramatic appearance, and more men were shooting at them-- and getting killed for it. Gel Sadra leapt down, dodging the crossfire, heading for her mother-- and X's voice boomed, "SCIENCE NINJA TEAM, STOP!"

They stopped. A man was holding a gun to Pandora's head. "One move out of you ninjas and she gets it!" he snarled. 

Abruptly Gel Sadra was swamped with an overwhelming sense of horror. Her heartbeat seemed to fill the room, and time slowed. As if watching a film, she saw the Gatchamen drop their weapons, transform out of bird style as they threw their wristbands to the floor, faces locked in expressions of grim anger and fear-- then a gunshot, spraying blood from her mother's head, and Pandora was falling, falling-- 

The real world came back before Gel Sadra had a chance to scream. It hadn't happened yet-- but it was going to, going to! She grabbed her gun and shrieked her denial as she fired, blowing away the Galactor's hand, then head. The dead man's gun clattered to the floor, and Pandora picked it up, as the Science Ninja Team went back into action and the chaos began again. 

"KILL GEL SADRA AND PANDORA!" X was roaring, but Gatchaman was between them and the main body of the men. The ones that were in range to try fell to Gel Sadra's and Pandora's guns. Pandora began running toward her daughter-- 

\--and a glass jar slammed down on her, stunning her. A hole in the floor opened like an iris, and the jar sank through-- 

\--" _No!_ " Gel Sadra cried, diving into the hole-- too late. The iris closed on her leg, suspending her over a darkened shaft, and her own shrieks echoed unbearably loudly in her ears.

* * *

_Why would Gel Sadra save Pandora?_

The question rang through Ken's mind as he ran toward the waving leg. Behind him, the others dispatched the last Galactors. Ken reached the hole in the flor with the black-booted leg caught in it-- he could hear hollow, echoing screams coming from within, and felt slightly sick. Not even Gel Sadra deserved such a fate. "Joe! Can you get this open?" 

Joe was there in a second. "Let's-- see--" With a massive effort of strength, Joe simply tore out the metal plates that formed the iris, and Ken and Ryu hauled Gel Sadra out. The wound was terrible-- the contracting metal plates had cut deeply into Gel Sadra's flesh, and white glimmers of bone were visible through the blood. 

"Mother..." Gel Sadra whimpered. 

"Mother?" Ken asked, puzzled. He decided to ignore it. "Gel Sadra, you are helpless. You can either agree to let us carry you off peacefully, or we will knock you unconscious--" 

"There's no time for this!" Gel Sdra shouted, seeming to regain strength. "We have to save my mother!" 

"Your mother?" 

"Dr. Pandora is my mother!" 

" _What?_ " 

"Now wait a minute--" 

"Dr. Pandora is--?" 

"Shut up, shut up!" Gel Sadra shouted as they all began to speak at once. "I saw where Sosai took her, she's going to the magnetic acceleration chamber! We have to save her!" 

Ken shoved doubt aside for the moment. If it was a trap, or a trick... well, with Dr. Pandora's life at stake, they'd take the chance. "All right, where's the chamber?" 

"I can take you there-- AAAIeee!" She tried to lever herself up, and crashed with a scream as weight came on her bad leg. 

"No, you can't! We don't have time, Gel Sadra-- give us directions!" 

She was panicking. "We don't have time for me to give directions, either!" 

"Ken!" Joe said. "I'll carry Gel Sadra. We're wasting time!" With enhanced cybernetic strength, he lifted the huge woman, who pointed. 

"Fastest way-- there!" 

They ran, Joe pushing himself to keep the pace with Gel Sadra in his arms. She weighed more than he did, even with his cybernetic components, and so it was difficult not to overbalance or trip-- but they made it into the room. A pair of Galactors were manipulating controls as a small craft with Pandora in it made its way onto a magnetic acceleration track. "No! Mother! You two, stop!" Gel Sadra shouted. They ignored her, one man pulling a gun to deal with the Science Ninja Team as another pressed the button that sent Pandora up the track. 

"Kuso!" Joe dropped Gel Sadra and ran, as fast as he could, up the track himself. He caught onto Pandora's vehicle just as it blasted off. 

"It's going to blow up!" Gel Sadra shrieked. "Mother!" 

Ken didn't waste time questioning her. By now, the two Galactors were dead, and Ken had spotted another vehicle. "Gel Sadra! This one has pilot's controls in it! Will it blow up?" 

"No, it shouldn't--" 

"All right! How do you get it onto the track?" 

Supported by Ryu, Gel Sadra manned the controls. "Like this!" She pressed some buttons, and the little craft came up onto the track. 

"Ken! You'll pick them up?" Jun asked. 

"Right! Gel Sadra, how do you fly this--" 

"Let me do it! I can fly it, and it's faster than explaining--" 

"We both go! Ryu, help me--" They got Gel Sadra into the ship, and then Ken squeezed in, practically on her lap. She whimpered as he accidentally bumped into her leg, but managed not to cry out. "Hit the green button!" she shouted to Ryu, and they began speeding up the track, several g's pressing them down. Then they were airborne.

* * *

On top of Pandora's craft, Joe-- having heard Gel Sadra's cry before the ship went out of range-- knew he had only minutes, perhaps seconds, to get Pandora out before it blew. He moved to the side Pandora wasn't leaning against, and pounded on it, cracking the transparent plastic of the window. A few more good pounds had it shattered. He pulled an unconscious Pandora out-- and looked down. 

He _had_ had a notion of simply jumping down. Now that they were several hundred feet from the ground, though, that was rather contraindicated. Not even he could jump that distance with an unconscious person in his arms and land safely. 

The bracelet crackled. "Joe, jump! We're coming to get you!" 

"Roger!" He leapt, holding Pandora's wrists in his, outstretched, as tightly as he dared without damaging her. Another small craft, with its top coming down, was rocketing swiftly toward him, and he angled to land on it. 

That was when they discovered a minor problem.

 The craft's trajectory abruptly changed, dipping violently. "Damn those idiots, they didn't put enough fuel in this thing!" Gel Sadra cried, panicked. "It's too heavy, I can't get control!" 

"Too heavy?" 

"We were shot out with force calculated for two people. Now there's four, and we haven't got the fuel to compensate. We're going down!" 

Ken glanced at Joe, who nodded and leapt off the craft. They were still heading into a deep nosedive. "We've got to lighten more! Gatchaman, can you jump out?" 

"Can I trust you to land safely?" 

"I'm not a novice, Gatchaman! I won't let any harm come to my mother-- go!" 

Ken went, hoping fervently that he was doing the right thing. Maybe when Pandora woke up, she could explain to him what was going on.

* * *

Jun was already running to the area where the ship would come down. She saw, horrified, that there were hardly any braking thrusters-- Gel Sadra was using ailerons to pull up, but it wasn't going to be enough. They were going to crash. She ran faster, as Joe landed next to her. Then the two of them stopped short as the little craft slammed into the ground, bounced, plowed a deep furrow, and came to a stop, billowing smoke. There was the "crump" of a small explosion, and flames became visible behind the smoke. 

"Dr. Pandora!" They ran, Ken landing nearby and catching up with them. 

A bizarre shape was forming in the smoke. As they and it approached each other, it came clearer-- Gel Sadra, hopping on one leg, supporting Dr. Pandora's dazed form. It was not a stable arrangement; as soon as they were out of the worst of the smoke, Gel Sadra toppled, and Ken and Joe pulled the two of them farther to safety. Pandora was sitting up and looking around confusedly. 

"Mother," Gel Sadra said. "I... saved you.. again... love me... now?" 

And then she seemed to sink in on herself, the energy going out of her. 

Pandora shook her head to clear it, and stared at Gel Sadra. "Get that boot off her leg!" she instructed, pulling off Gel Sadra's mask. A feminine face, sweet in repose, was revealed amid a pile of golden hair. Pandora felt for her daughter's pulse. "She's in shock. Where's the _New God Phoenix?_ " 

"Piemur! Home in on my signal and get over here!" Ken told his bracelet. 

"Ro-ger-" 

Jun had finished cutting the boot free from Gel Sadra's injury. Pandora looked at Ken. "How did this happen to her leg?" 

"She jumped in a hole and it closed on her. Going after you. Dr. Pandora, can it be true that you are Gel Sadra's mother?" 

"Yes," Pandora said quietly. "She did turn against X for me, didn't she... Sammie..." She looked back at Ken. "I'll explain everything on the way home. Gel Sadra isn't the enemy anymore."

* * *

Gel Sadra awakened in an antiseptic-smelling place, the familiar gnawing agony like acid in her bones, passing in waves through her. She whimpered softly-- _where am I?_   

And then, as she opened her eyes, she saw Pandora, and remembered. 

"Mother! You're all right!" 

"So are you," Pandora returned, smiling. "We've fixed your leg with a cast and a metal prosthesis until it heals on its own. How do you feel?" 

"I-- I'm glad you're safe but-- oh, where are my pills, it hurts, it hurts..." 

"Your pills?" Pandora frowned. "What pills?" 

"Where's my costume-- they should be in there..." 

"You mean these." Pandora brought over a small bottle of candy-coated blue pills. 

"Yes-- yes! Please let me have them, Mother, it hurts..." 

"I'll give them to you. How many?" Pandora spilled pills out into her hand, and gave Gel Sadra 3 as instructed, apprehensively. "But what is it that hurts? What are these pills?" 

"I don't know," Gel Sadra said, relaxing as they took effect. "Sometimes, when I wake up or when something bad happens to me, my whole body hurts, inside. It used to be just in my stomach, but lately it's been in my arms and legs as well... like something tearing at me, burning me. The pills get rid of it, though." 

"Did-- did X ever have a doctor check you?" 

"My doctor's the one who gave me the pills," Gel Sadra replied. She sat up. "I don't really want to talk about pills and things right now. I'm in an ISO base, aren't I? Tell me what's to become of me, Mother-- what will Nambu do to me?" 

"That depends." Pandora sat down by the bed. "How much do you know about X's Solar Shift Plan?" 

"He was going to use it to make me empress of the world..." There was a sound of wistful loss in Gel Sadra's voice. 

"No, he wasn't. Look at this-- we retrieved these tapes from inside your escape ship. Watch." Pandora lowered a viewscreen, put the tape in, and turned it on. Gel Sadra watched, first with curiosity, then with dawning horror, as the equations for the Solar Shift Plan scrolled past, with diagrams of planned trajectories. "The Main Beam Cannons-- set on Earth, Mars and Venus-- to knock the sun into a rogue star trajectory-- swallowing or leaving the planets of the Solar System behind..." Gel Sadra whispered, horrified. The rest of the plan soon became terrifyingly clear-- the energies harnessed by the Solar Shift Plan would cause gravitational tides that would rip Earth and Mars apart, simultaneously shooting the sun into a hyperspatial gateway, where it would emerge near another solar system, boiling or ripping apart possibly inhabited planets.

"And I-- helped _plan_ this. I built his bases for him. I would have.. destroyed... the Earth..." Horror gave way to hysteria, and Gel Sadra began to laugh. "Oroka, oroka! Watashi no oroka!" Fool, fool, what a fool I've been! 

"You see?" Pandora said quietly, as Gel Sadra's laughter turned to sobs. "Don't cry, Gel Sadra, it's all right. We'll stop him." But it was too late. The floodgates had opened, and Gel Sadra was unable to shut them. Pandora sat on the bed and cradled the child-woman's head in her lap, as Gel Sadra wept, repeating over and over than she'd been a fool. 

Finally her sobs died. For a while Gel Sadra lay unmoving, as her mother stroked her hair. Then she levered herself up and looked into Pandora's eyes. "I never cried before," she whispered. "I always wanted to, but I never really could. Do you think that means I'm finally free of Sosai?" 

"I don't know," Pandora said, but she smiled. Her baby had come back to her. 

"It's so strange. Just-- what was it, yesterday?-- I loved Sosai, I'd do anything to please him-- and then you showed me. Then I found you, and I saw the truth. As soon as Sosai said I could never see you again, I knew I couldn't trust him for advice. I gave you two of the stupidest guards, so you could get away--" 

"I thought I heard your voice, telling me to kill them and escape. How strange!" 

"Somehow we have a connection, Mother," Gel Sadra said. "After all, somehow we recognized each other, even before... What will the Science Ninja Team do about Sosai?" 

"They plan to destroy him, but they don't know where he is." 

"I can show them!" Gel Sadra stood, her leg brace clattering on the floor like a tap shoe. "I'm well enough. I can go with the Gatchamen and show them where Sosai X is!" 

That was more than Pandora had expected-- she'd hoped merely to get information. "Why don't you just tell them? Why do you want to go yourself?" 

"Because I want Sosai X to _know_ who brought him down," Gel Sadra said with sudden savagery. "I was loyal to him, and he _used_ me-- he told me I would be ruler of the world, when he planned to destroy it all along. I want to be there, to be a part of it. I want to help them _kill_ him--" 

"But you're injured, Gel Sadra. And you're not trained for that sort of work-- you could be killed! You--" 

"Did you hear what you just said?" Gel Sadra said quietly. "You called me Gel Sadra. All you _have_ called me is Gel Sadra. I want to be Sammie." 

"You want me to call you Sammie?" 

"No, I want to _be_ Sammie. And I can't, ever again. I'm so tired, of having to make decisions, of getting hurt-- I always wanted someone to love me, to comfort me, the way a mother does a child-- but you never will again, because I'm _not_ a child." She clenched her fists. "It's so unfair. I lost my whole childhood, I nearly lost you... and it's _his_ fault. Sosai made me what I am, stole my childhood from me. He tried to kill you, Mother! Playing on my loyalty to him, he tried to kill you, destroy the Earth. I _have_ to destroy him, Mama, I have to."

* * *

Ken was leery of working with Gel Sadra, but Joe, who had often enough worked with people who had been Galactors, and reformed, believed that her desire to help was genuine, and convinced the others. There were things Gel Sadra had done in the past that none of them could entirely forget-- but if they managed to bear in mind that she _was_ , after all, a child, albeit an extremely sophisticated one, and could not be truly held to account for her own actions, they could at the least ignore what she had done, and Jun at least was able to completely forgive her. It was hard to see her the same way they had anyway-- she was wearing a purple velour sweatsuit with body armor and a miniature arsenal concealed under the soft fabric, not her usual costume at all, and her exposed face had a luminescently beautiful aspect, feminine and innocent-seeming, even childlike-- which made it that much easier to see her as the child she was. 

The six of them slipped through a secret entrance to the base-- which was high in the Alps-- that Gel Sadra pointed out, and made their way to a pair of ornately carved doors. Two "special guards", in blue and gold instead of green, stood at the door. Gel Sadra stepped forward, laughing. "Thank you for working so hard at your posts." 

"Gel Sadra-- we thought-- you were--" 

Thump. Thump. 

Since Ken and Joe were in front, it was a feather shuriken and a flying disc that killed them. Gel Sadra moved to a handprint panel, and pressed her palm to it. The doors opened, and the five of them shot in like shadow streaks, Gel Sadra following. 

The room beyond was dark, lit by flickering multicolored sparkles. Strange things moved in the darkness. The five of them formed a circle around Gel Sadra, their backs to each other, facing outward in all directions. 

"Sosai X! Where are you!" Ken shouted. 

Deep laughter filled the room. "SO YOU'VE COME, SCIENCE NINJA TEAM!" 

"We're here to destroy you!" Joe said. 

"Your evil ends here, Sosai X," Ken said tightly. "Today is your end." 

"FOOLS. I AM NOT FROM THIS WORLD! WITH HUMANS' PATHETIC SCIENCE, HOW CAN YOU HOPE TO DEFEAT ME?" More laughter. 

"We aren't limited to human science!" Jun cried. "Humans also have intelligence and courage. And with the power of the human heart, we _will_ win!" 

"IT IS YOUR HUMAN HEARTS, YOUR HUMAN WEAKNESSES, THAT WILL ALWAYS DESTROY YOU IN THE END," X replied. "FOR WHEN I DESTROY ONE OF YOU, THE REST FALL INSTANTLY. WATCH!" 

With no more warning than that, a brilliant ray of light lanced out of the darkness and struck Ken in the chest. He screamed, and fell backward, as his teammates cried out in outrage and X laughed. "YOU SEE? IF I DESTROY GATCHAMAN, THE REST OF YOU ARE NO MORE THAN HELPLESS ANIMALS!" 

"How is he?" Joe asked, without taking his eyes away from the darkness where X presumably was. 

Jun, bent by Ken's side, and sheltered from further attack by her three teammates, reported, "He's alive but he's unconscious. Joe! Without Ken to lead us-- without even seeing what we're to fight--" 

Joe growled. "If we're so helpless, Sosai X, then show yourself! Or are you too afraid of us?" 

"AFRAID? OF _YOU?_ " X laughed, and a deep grinding noise emanated from beneath their feet. "VERY WELL, CONDOR JOE. YOU WISH TO SEE MY TRUE FACE? SO BE IT!" 

Blinding, destroying light radiated from a crack in the darkness. Everyone gasped and covered their eyes, but Gel Sadra said quietly, "He's opening up his inner chamber. That'll make it easier for us to kill him." 

As the light faded, they saw a transparent capsule, full of glowing circuitry, mounted on a pedestal. Joe asked, " Are you Sosai X?" 

"THAT'S RIGHT." The capsule pulsed as the voice spoke. 

"Then, _die!!_ " 

"Joe, _no!!_ " Jun cried, as Joe launched himself directly at X. Gel Sadra was screaming, "That's the wrong way, he'll kill you!" and Jinpei and Ryu were shouting his name. But Joe didn't care. He had been made by Dr. Rafael for the destruction of Sosai X, and that was what he was going to do. 

"Everyone get back!" he shouted, running at X-- 

\--and the same light that had struck down Ken knocked him backwards, flying toward the far wall. 

" _Joe!_ " 

"Joe aniki!" 

Jinpei started to run at the machine, but Jun pulled him back. "No, we'll need teamwork to defeat X, or we're all doomed!" Jun cried, as Gel Sadra headed for a hidden switch on the wall. 

"YOU'RE ALL DOOMED ANYWAY!" 

"Gel Sadra, what're you doing?" Ryu asked. 

Gel Sadra reached the switch and pulled it. The floor began rolling backwards, and the ninjas backpedaled, startled, while a huge column was exposed at X's base.  

"What are you doing, Gel Sadra?" Jun asked. 

"That glowing square is Sosai's weakest point," Gel Sadra said. "It's his power core, and it's highly reactive." 

"GEL SADRA, I WILL NOT FORGIVE THIS TREASON!" 

"I don't care!" Gel Sadra shouted. "I came here to destroy you for taking my childhood away! --If you damage that area, Sosai X will be des-- AIIIEE!" One of the rays of light caught Gel Sadra, and she pitched forward. She would have fallen into the abyss, but Ryu hurled his gripper at her waist, and yanked her back. She was as unconscious as the others. 

"Attack as a team!" Jun cried, and launched herself at the ceiling, wrapping her ribbon around a piece of equipment there and launching herself at X. Another of the light beams fired, but by now she was in a good position to dodge-- she pulled hard on the ribbon, and changed her course radically. Ryu-- who had no hope of leaping to the thing-- decided to slide down into the pit and try to climb, while Jimpei launched himself in a straight arc. 

"Ahh!" A laser struck him on the side, knocking him off course. 

" _Jinpei!_ " 

"Dammit!" Ryu shouted, and pulled his gun, trying to fire at X. The gun was pulled from his hand magnetically, and went sailing upwards, as a shaft of laser light seared toward him and he had to dodge. The same thing was happening to Jun-- her gun was pulled from her hand, but she quickly withdrew a handful of bombs. The magnetic pull took them, they exploded, and one of the laser turrets was taken out. 

Now the sides of the pit were coming loose, turning into tentacled laser-firers. Jinpei climbed one, letting the crossfire of the others damage it to provide him footholds, and from it he aimed the rebound ball at X's weak point. It shattered the glass, went in-- but there was no other damage. For a second Jinpei stared at it stupidly-- what had gone wrong? Then he narrowly avoided being fried by a laser, and fell back to the bottom of the pit. 

Slowly but surely, Ryu was climbing. To draw X's fire away from him, Jun was swinging and leaping all about X, daring his lasers, while her bombs found more and more targets. She didn't have that many bombs to start with, though, and though she had some feather shuriken, they would do next to no good against X. So she swung in close, to try to recover her gun and get a distance weapon. That was a mistake. 

"Aaahhh!" The laser caught her across the wrists, and she released the aurora ribbon and fell. 

"Onechan!" 

"Jun!" 

Now Ken was awake, and heard his teammates' cries. _I've got to get up and help them!_ Despite his feeling of weakness and dizziness, he got to his feet and ran toward the site of the battle. His eyes took in the unconscious forms of Gel Sadra and Joe, the pit with Jun lying at the bottom and Ryu climbing the central pillar, while Jinpei distracted the turrets. 

"Ken aniki!" Jinpei shouted. "Aim at the glowing box!" 

Ken leapt, with every intention of doing just that. But the laser caught his cloak, sent him down to the bottom of the pit. He tried pulling his gun, but it met the same fate as the others he hadn't seen. 

The lasers were tracking on Jinpei now-- who had used up most of his bombs too. Ken had to do something. He leapt from the pit, catching one of the tentacle things and clambering up it. Now X was devoting its attention to him, and away from Jinpei-- and Ryu, who was on the other side of the pit from Ken, still steadily climbing. Ken leapt, flung his bird disk-- 

\--Lasers bracketed him, and he screamed, the bird disk flying wildly into X. Jinpei shouted in fury and dove at X's weak spot, having dodged high enough to do so. All of X's power went into taking the rapidly moving boy down. Of the six or seven bolts that fired, only one hit-- but one was enough. 

X hadn't paid much attention to Ryu, counting him the weakest and least dangerous of them all. That was a mistake. Ryu was directly under the weak spot now-- and while X was occupied with Jinpei, Ryu smashed the glass and fell in. The two of them screamed simultaneously, X and Ryu. It was as if a thousand shards of electric glass had been driven into Ryu's flesh. He fell backwards out of the hole, before he had done much more than crush a good bit of it with his weight. He got to his feet shakily, as X tracked on him-- and then Joe leapt for the hole. 

Joe had awakened earlier, but his circuitry had been temporarily overloaded by the bolt-- which, at the strength he'd taken it at, would have killed any human man-- and so it had been a while before he could get moving. So he knew about the weak point, and he took full advantage of it, throwing the weight of his body inward at such an angle that he fell all the way through the layers to X's core. 

He expected to die then, that he and X would explode simultaneously, but it didn't happen. Instead, his brain and body filled with an unbearable vibration, as X groaned in mortal agony. Pulsing brightness stabbed Joe's eyes, and X's scream tore through him on every level of his being. 

It was X's scream that awoke everyone else, and the others quickly leapt from the pit, startled. Before they could go very far, though, X's energies filled the room, swamping their thoughts like an overload of light and sound. 

 Then X's voice spoke, slurred and slowed by the damage. 

"I AM X, AN AGENT FROM SPACE. FROM SPACE. THE WORLD SELECTRO. THE CHOSEN ONES. I CAME FOR MY HOMEWORLD'S GLORY. TO RULE THIS WORLD. WE ARE AN EMPIRE. BUT THEY DESTROYED US. KEIRAI. THE ANCIENT ENEMY. THEY DESTROYED SELECTRO. MY PEOPLE ARE ALL DEAD. OR SCATTERED. THE ONLY PEOPLE. SCATTERED. LOST. GONE. I MUST AVENGE SELECTRO. KEIRAI DESTROYED SELECTRO. I MUST DESTROY KEIRAI. WITH THE SUN. THIS WORLD IS MY ENEMY. LIKE KEIRAI. HAS DEFEATED ME ONCE. I WILL USE ITS SUN TO DESTROY KEIRAI. TO AVENGE SELECTRO. MY PEOPLE. ARE ALL DEAD. I AM X, AN AGENT FROM SPACE. FROM SPACE. FROM SELECTRO. SELECTRO WAS DESTROYED. I AM X..." 

There might have been more, but the voice slurred beyond all possibility of understanding-- and then the noise and light ceased, like a light switch being turned off, and the capsule turned opaque, then shattered. 

Then there was an explosion. 

" _Joe!!_ " Jun cried. 

X began to self-destruct, exploding. Joe, limp, was flung out, and Ryu gathered him up as they ran for the exit, all of them hurt but making it out in time. Piemur and the _New God Phoenix_ picked them up, and the six of them headed for home, the Galactor organization shattering to pieces behind them.

* * *

All the Science Ninja Team required medical help more than Gel Sadra, despite having managed to keep their feet better. So it was a while before Nambu and a medical assistant he'd brought in, Dr. Kestin, got around to examining the mutant woman. 

They were not happy with what they found.

* * *

With tears on her face, Pandora put down the report, looked up at Nambu and Kestin. "Only a year?" Her voice broke. "She's really only four years old... she's had hardly any time at all..." 

"I'm sorry," Kestin said feelingly. "If someone had caught it in time... but those Galactor butchers only gave her pills for the pain." 

"That's all too typical," Pandora said bitterly. "X didn't care if his creation lived another year or not. He just needed her until the Solar Shift Plan was completed, and it didn't matter what happened after that... damn him!" 

"Will you tell her?" Nambu asked quietly. 

"How can I? How does anyone tell such a thing... how can I tell her that she's dying, that she has only a year to live?" 

"Remember that a year is all she remembers of her life so far," Nambu said gently. "It will seem far longer to her than to you. And remember that she's been lied to so often in the past.." 

"I know, Doctor. I know. I have to tell her... I just don't know how."

* * *

Gel Sadra awakened fully, a warm feeling spreading all through her. She remembered her mother being there by her bedside, earlier-- perhaps now that Sosai X was dead, her mother might love her the way she had when she was Sammie. Maybe Gel Sadra could become a scientist, like her mother. X had told her once that she was a genius. 

And then Dr. Pandora entered the room, but instead of feeling happiness, Gel Sadra was overcome with a sudden wash of dread. 

"Gel Sadra," her mother said softly. "It seems X lied to you about many things." 

"What is it?" Gel Sadra asked, and saw tears welling up in her mother's eyes. "What is it, what is it?" 

Pandora sat down on the edge of the bed. "We've discovered where your pains are coming from, Gel Sadra," she said, her voice controlled but her eyes bright with tears. "You have cancer." 

"Cancer-- _what?_ " 

"If it had been caught in time..." Pandora's voice broke, and she took Gel Sadra's hands in her own. "Oh, Gel Sadra, I don't know how to say this to you! My baby, my little girl... Left untreated, the disease will kill you in two or three months. With treatment, we can give you as much as a year... but no more..." 

"A... year?" Gel Sadra whispered. "I will only live for another year? I'm going to die?" 

Pandora nodded, closing her eyes tightly against a bitter rush of tears. 

"A year..." Gel Sadra repeated. "You know, Mother, I don't see time the way ordinary people do. A year is all I've known. It's so strange to me, that a day can come back again. That we have, say, June 15th, and then if you wait there'll be another June 15th. My life hasn't seemed so short to me, but I've only seen time go around once. And now-- and now I won't see it go around again-- I thought I had forever, Mama, I thought I would live forever..." She laughed painfully. "I am the immortal Gel Sadra! Remember that... but somebody, somebody seems to have forgotten--" Her breath caught in a sob. "Isn't there any way? Some treatment? You ISO people have cures for all kinds of diseases-- can't you cure me?" 

"We've looked," Pandora whispered. "We've looked so hard... But the cancer's metastasized-- you know what that means, don't you?" 

"I'm not ignorant-- of course I know what it means! It's spread-- but couldn't you cut out the organs and replace them? Make me into a cyborg or something?" 

"Your Galactor killed the only person who knew how to do that!" Pandora said sharply, then melted again. "I'm sorry-- I didn't mean--" 

"You did mean." Gel Sadra stared at nothing, her voice quavering. "Don't lie to me, mother, I've heard too many lies in my life. You love me-- you're crying, because I'm going to die-- but you still think of me as the heartless leader of Galactor, don't you? For all my life, all the time that's left to me, that'll always come between us-- and do you know what?" Her voice snapped, broke. "I _am_ heartless! I don't care about the things you care about. killing people _still_ means nothing to me... I'm sorry I did what I did because it made you hate me, it took you away from me, but if you told me to do it again I would and do you know how that makes me feel?" She was crying brokenly. "I'm not human, Mama! Look at me, listen to my voice! I'm not a human, I'll never be a human. I'm going to die, and I'll never be a human like you..." 

There was nothing Pandora could say. Small children _were_ , in fact, heartless-- no one's welfare mattered to them but their own and that of the people they loved-- but that was no comfort for Gel Sadra, because she would never grow up. She never would become fully human, neither physically nor emotionally... poor little girl. 

"I'm sorry," Pandora whispered, and held her daughter's head to her chest, tightly.

* * *

Two weeks later. 

The treatments had begun. The illness they made Gel Sadra feel reminded her of her impending death, made it real to her, and she wanted to get as much done before she died as possible. She had been giving Dr. Nambu information on Galactor's operations, enabling the Science Ninjas and other operatives to wipe out the rest of Galactor. But it wasn't enough. It wasn't what she wanted to be remembered for, any more than her position as Galactor leader was. It was still destroying things, and she wanted to build. She remembered the sketchbooks, now lost in destroyed bases, she had filled with her fancies, castles in the sky and underwater cities. When she ruled the world, she had thought, she would build them-- even then, she loved to build as much as to destroy. But she would never have an opportunity to build anything. She would never see any of her dreams turn real. 

She kicked a rock through the rain as she walked, oblivious to the sopping wet nature of her clothes and hair. She had been taking these walks a lot lately, thinking about death. Or trying not to think about death-- part of her insisted that it wasn't true, wasn't real, that if she ignored it it would go away. 

But it wasn't going away. 

There was so much to do, so much she didn't know-- she felt like a half-full vessel, like a crazy quilt patchwork. Her knowledge of the world was spotty, gleaned from books and conversations and things X had thought important she know. So much to learn... she could spend the rest of her short life learning, and not really know anything when she died. Oh, it was bitter. 

She kicked the rock into a puddle, and splashed in after it. A voice behind her said, "How the mighty have fallen, Gel Sadra." 

"Wha-- what?" She spun-- 

The woman with the white raincoat was vaguely familiar. Even shadowed by her umbrella, it was apparent that her skin was white, as white as Gel Sadra's had been, and her hair was thick and dark. "How quickly you have forgetten. Do you remember Selina Marriochio, Gel Sadra?" 

"Selina!" The word was almost a curse. "Yes, I remember you. I have no business with you. Go away!" 

"I think you do. I have heard that you are ill?" 

"Go away!" 

"Would you still say that if you knew I offer a cure? And a chance to return to childhood, as I've heard you want?" 

Gel Sadra stared. Finally she said, "Let's get in out of the rain and talk."

* * *

The restaurant was not as expensive as the ones Gel Sadra was accustomed to, but she had learned painfully that ISO did not give her an unlimited expense account. Despite the illness brought on by the treatments, Gel Sadra still managed to order an immense quantity of food-- Marriochio looked at her with some disgust, and placed her own order, for a cup of tea. "That's all you're going to have?" Gel Sadra demanded. 

"Did we come here to discuss my eating habits?" 

The waiter left, and Gel Sadra leaned forward. "All right, talk," she said. "What do you want?" 

"Do you by any chance happen to remember Lisa and Damon?" 

Gel Sadra frowned. "The names aren't familiar." 

"Perhaps you never bothered to learn their names. Do you remember your children?" 

Gel Sadra sucked in a deep breath-- she did remember, now, though the incident was over six months ago, and had turned mostly into a haze in her brain, like anything that far back. The whole thing had been terribly unpleasant. Damon Boccini had introduced her to sex, trying to seduce his way into power. It hadn't worked-- when X had informed Gel Sadra of what he was trying to do, she had killed him without a moment of remorse-- but it had caused her terrible problems when it was discovered that she was pregnant. Gel Sadra had totally forgotten about the pregnancy aspect, and had not thought to use any sort of safeguard. When X discovered her condition, he forbade her to have an abortion-- Damon Boccini apparently had special genes, like Gel Sadra herself, and X wanted to see what the children would be like. Gel Sadra had pleaded with him, and finally convinced him that a pregnant leader of Galactor would get no respect and would be a liability, with lessened mobility. So X had brought in Marriochio to help speed the twins in Gel Sadra's womb through gestation, so they could be born in a matter of weeks. Marriochio had taken the children afterward-- Gel Sadra certainly hadn't wanted them-- and then Marriochio had resigned from Galactor and vanished. Gel Sadra hadn't given a thought to her or the children since. "Yes." 

"The forced growth continued. I was only recently able to stabilize it, so they are now approximately the age you were before you became Gel Sadra, and they are now growing at a normal rate." 

"I don't care. What about _me?_ " 

"That is in fact the point of this discussion. When I helped X deal with your children, he was forced to teach me the truth about you, and by studying both sets of records, as well as some experimentation on animals, I have come to understand the procedure of speed-growing-- and its reversal, which is far more difficult. The reason for your disease is your forced growth. It affected latent cancerous cells, which all human beings have, and they began to grow even after you had stopped. If I reverse the process, those cells will be the first to be destroyed. The child that will be will be healthy." 

"You can _do_ that?" Excitement flared in Gel Sadra's mind, to be abruptly damped by cold reality. Selina never did something for nothing. "Why would you do such a thing? You and I have never been on good terms." 

"I will tell you my price after I've told you of the possible dangers. You should make an informed decision." 

"What possible dangers?" 

"In the first place, I have tested the technique only on animals, and not often enough to be sure of my results. I don't know what the effect on your human brain will be. You may die instantly, or sometime after the process' completion, or you may live brain-damaged." 

"I can accept risks like that. I'm going to die anyway, so..." 

"Even if it works perfectly, you will lose your memories of being Gel Sadra. I don't think the memories will be gone, but they will be inaccessible to you, at least until you become an adult again-- and by that time they will be faded, no more than vague dreams. Your personality will once more be as malleable as a child's." 

"That's exactly what I want. Anything else?" 

"I'll require ISO's help-- and that means I must not be prosecuted for actions performed as a Galactor." 

"My mother will handle that. What's in this for you? Why would you do such a thing for me?" 

"Two reasons. The first is simply curiosity-- I want to see if I can do it. The benefits from this technique would be tremendous-- by studying you, I can understand the nature of aging completely, how to speed it, slow it, or counteract it." 

"And the second?" 

"Is my price. There are a pair of children, adopted into ISO families, that interest me. They are three years old, a girl and a boy. The girl's family are the Bellenheimers-- Dr. Bellenheimer works in hypernium research. The boy was adopted by a Dr. Westerly, a bachelor who works with genetics. I want you to get me those children." 

"What for?" 

"Personal reasons. Suffice it to say that I, who was adopted myself, know how terrible it is to be adopted into a family below one in intelligence. The children will be geniuses, and only an intellect like my own can see that they properly flourish. There are other reasons, but that one will do." 

"Do their parents love them?" 

"What does that have to do with anything?" 

Gel Sadra spoke angrily. "I was kidnapped from the woman who loved me when I was 3 years old so my genius could 'properly flourish', and look what's become of me! I won't help you repeat the tragedy of my past-- I won't!" 

"Emotion. You were always emotional, Gel Sadra." Selina looked at the table. "Very well, then-- when in Rome, speak Latin. I suppose I will have to expose myself to you." She looked up with an expression of intensity. "Gel Sadra, these children are mine. Not of my body, but of my... of my heart. They are the most important thing to me right now, that I care for them, that I raise them. I.. love them, inasmuch as I can love anything. They are the only people in all the world I care about more than myself." 

The words of emotion sounded bizarre, coming from cold Selina, but Gel Sadra knew they had to be true. Selina would never fake emotion to manipulate someone. Emotion was a weakness, and it would have to be overwhelmingly powerful for Selina to admit to it at all. 

"All right," Gel Sadra said. After all, the children were adopted-- who was to say that Selina shouldn't rightfully have them? "I'll do it. And then?" 

"Then we negotiate with ISO."

* * *

Christina Bellenheimer was an adorable little girl, with wide blue eyes and a cap of golden hair, curling up at the bottom. Gel Sadra peered in the window, at the child peacefully reading a Dr. Seuss book, and felt a pang of recognition. _Perhaps I looked like that when I was Sammie?_ With her laser, she sliced open the window and climbed in. The child turned and stared at her, terror in her eyes. 

"Don't be afraid," Gel Sadra said. "I'm going to take you to your new mother." 

"I don't want a new mother!" The child began shrieking. "Mommy, daddy, help! He's taking me away!" 

Gel Sadra grabbed the child and went out the window as the Bellenheimers ran into the room. "Stop!" Dr. Bellenheimer was shouting, climbing through the window after her. "Christina!" 

"Mommy! Daddy!" 

The cry tore at Gel Sadra's heart. _I-- I am doing what X did to me!_ She faltered-- but it was her own life at stake, after all. Her happiness with her own mother... Resolutely she ran on, tossing the child into her car and driving off.  

"Where are you taking me?" the girl cried. "I want my mommy!" 

"So do I," Gel Sadra said. "So do I..."

* * *

Nambu was very disturbed by the kidnapping of Christina Bellenheimer. 

The Cross Karakoram twins had been surrounded by mystery from the time they were found-- two babies, apparently 6 months or so, had been discovered in the wreckage surrounding Cross Karakoram Base with no indication as to how they got there. They were of different sexes, but clothed, they appeared identical. The theory had been that they had been experimental subjects of Galactor-- but Nambu felt that was not enough. That didn't fully describe their strangeness. For the two babies were blond, blue-eyed and fair-skinned, and seemed to react in sync with each other, to the point that when one was hurt, both would cry. Nambu feared very much what the children might represent-- a cloning experiment? Or perhaps something darker? What-- or _who--_ were they? 

He told no one of his suspicions. Many babies were blond, blue-eyed and fair-skinned-- it proved nothing. But he ordered the children separated, adopted by different families. Now Nambu did not think it coincidence that so shortly after Galactor's destruction, one of the twins was taken. 

He called Mark Westerly, the boy's adopted father. 

"Do you think you could fit a vacation of several months into your schedule?" 

"Doubt it-- it's been really busy around here. Anyhow, who could I get to take care of Tom? I'm not precisely a free man anymore--" 

"This is to protect Thomas. I have reason to believe there might be an attempt to kidnap him, sometime soon." 

Silence on the other side for a second. Then, "Related to my research?" 

"Related to who Thomas is." 

"I was afraid of that." Nambu had not briefed Westerly on his suspicions, but he believed that Westerly had managed to draw some conclusions on his own. "Is there anywhere in particular you want me to go?" 

"Someplace where you can't be easily traced. I think it's very important that Thomas _not_ be taken." 

"I see. I think I know of a place like that. I'll leave as soon as possible."

* * *

Almost crying, Gel Sadra went to Selina with the news. 

"Selina, I can't get you the other child-- the father went on vacation somehwere, and I can't find out where! I--" 

"Idiot. You must have accidentally revealed the plan to Dr. Nambu. If he knows that you kidnapped the girl, he'll find out from you where she went, and I won't be able to--" 

"No, I didn't, I didn't! Nambu doesn't know anything about it. If he did, he'd ask me, or have me followed, wouldn't he?" 

"How do you know he hasn't had you followed?" 

"Because--" Gel Sadra broke off. There was no good logical reason for her certainty that Nambu didn't know, she was just sure. "I just know," she said. "He has no idea it was me." 

Selina frowned. "If what you say is true... Nambu's far more perceptive than I took him for, if he saw the connection."  

"Between me and the kidnappings?" 

"No. Between the children. If he understood..." 

"Selina, it's not my fault, I swear!" 

Selina studied Gel Sadra. "I am still curious," she admitted. "And one child is better than neither. I've renamed her Athena-- I think, appropriate." She half-smiled. "Very well, Gel Sadra. You've performed your half of our bargain, to the best of your ability. Now we can negotiate with ISO, and I will perform mine."

* * *

Nambu and Pandora were both frankly suspicious. 

"Why would you go out of your way to help my daughter?" Pandora demanded. 

"It isn't out of my way. Lately my research has been involved with the study of aging, and its reversal. Gel Sadra is the only force-grown adult I know of. Reversing the speed-growth process in Gel Sadra is the most efficient way to study the secrets of aging. My motives are not altruistic, I assure you-- I will get far more out of this than I put in." 

Nambu studied a folder full of papers. "You were Galactor's Executive Scientist after the death of Dr. Finger, weren't you?" 

"Wrong. Dr. Finger wasn't a scientist, though he tried to dignify himself with that title. He was a power-hungry fifth- level captain who happened to be given control over the Science Department. I was Galactor's true Executive Scientist since the death of Dr. Vail Djannis, and after Dr. Finger's death, I was given the power in name I had always had in reality." 

"I see. So you were responsible for the design of mecha and such?" 

Selina half-smiled. "What a stupid notion. In general, Berg Katse designed the mecha, or lower-level scientists. My work was mostly with biologic systems-- I ignored mecha as much as I was permitted, having more important research to do." 

"And Katse let you?" 

"Berg Katse allowed me to do whatever I wished." 

"I see. But Gel Sadra tells us you and she never got along. Why should we trust you?" 

"Why should you trust Gel Sadra? I have no time to waste on petty vendettas, Doctor. My life is my work, and I do not allow my feelings to interfere, ever. Why should I care one way or another for any Galactor? After the one I gave my loyalty to died, Galactor ceased to mean anything in particular to me. I stayed with Gel Sadra and Sosai X as long as I did in part because I wanted Galactor funding and in part out of inertia. For whose sake, then, should I hurt Gel Sadra? She means nothing to me, and there is nothing to be learned from harming her. 

"Esteemed doctors, I do not guarantee that my process will work. It may result in failure, brain-damage, or death, and likely other unpleasant outcomes are possible as well. If it does work, however, it will result in a healthy child with many more years of life ahead of her, whereas the alternative is that Gel Sadra die, in less than a year from now, as a mutant with no future and no health. She has already made her decision-- she wishes to take the risk. Are you willing to allow her to? Death, or a chance at life-- esteemed doctors, you hold Gel Sadra's life in your hands." 

"You will do this simply for science's sake?" Nambu asked. 

"The pursuit of knowledge is the only motive I acknowledge anymore." 

Nambu looked at Gel Sadra's mother. "Dr. Pandora?" 

"I-- I don't see how we can _not_ let her try, Doctor. A chance to make Sammie a little girl again..." 

"I see." Nambu turned back to Marriochio. "Very well, Dr. Marriochio. What will you need?"

* * *

It took two weeks to assemble everything. 

They gave Marriochio a large room for her lab. The room had been filled with monitors, computers, and various process tanks. Dominating the center of the room was a circular tank that looked like a kid's swimming pool-- four feet high and eight feet in diameter, it was made of a murky, blurring transparent transparent plastic and was connected to dozens of tubes, wires and monitor boards. Robotic arms hovered in a cluster above the tank. Even to one as familiar as Gel Sadra was with strange machinery, it was intimidating-- especially when she considered that its purpose was to transform her, personally, into someone else. 

She stood in the center of the room and shivered, acutely conscious of the eyes on her naked body. Desperately she wished for a bathrobe, a towel, anything to shield herself from the eyes. It seemed as if half of ISO was crowded into this room, staring at her mutant form. Part of her wished desperately that Selina would hurry up and finish running through the checklist-- and part of her wished that Selina would never finish, that she could turn and run from this room. 

_I might die. And even if all goes as planned, I won't remember any of this anymore... if all goes as planned, Gel Sadra will die. I will become someone new, but the person that I am will die._

It was exactly what she had wanted-- but now she wasn't so sure. Now she understood that this transformation would be a kind of death, and it terrified her.  

She wondered what the scientists were getting out of this. Marriochio wasn't explaining anything. Then Marriochio turned, and as if reading her thoughts, spoke. 

"If any of you are here hoping to discover how this process works, or how the mechanism of aging itself operates, you are on your own. This territory is new to me, and I can waste none of my concentration on explaining matters. If you are merely here to see an adult become a child again, come back in a month." 

There were faint murmurs-- Selina had won no points for tact. Selina ignored them. "Gel Sadra! Are you ready?" 

"H-hai." She stepped up onto the platform around the tank, and, on Selina's instructions, lowered herself onto a floating body rest. Selina touched buttons, and tubes and wires came down from the robotic arms, attached themselves to her arms, legs, neck, insinuated themselves into every corner of her body. Gel Sadra felt dizzy, helpless, and very small. "Mother!" 

Pandora was there. "I'm here." 

"Stay with me, mama, I'm scared," Gel Sadra whispered. 

"I'll be here the whole time." She looked at Marriochio. "May I touch her?" 

"Do what you want. Just don't disturb the tubing." 

Pandora took Gel Sadra's paralyzed hand and held it. "I'm with you, Sammie," she said. "I won't leave you." 

"Mama, I love you," Gel Sadra murmured, darkness obscuring her vision. "I love you..." 

"I love you too, Sammie..." 

"All right," Marriochio said. Gel Sadra heard the voice as if it were miles away, and hardly important any more. "Move out of the way, Doctor." 

More tubes descended on her face, inserted themselves into her mouth, her nose, pressed cups of darkness over her eyes, but she could hardly feel them anymore. She was dimly aware of the float lowering down into the tank, of the gentle water closing over her body. And then, darkness took everything away.

* * *

Marriochio closed the tank. "That's it for now. There's nothing to see." Within the tank, a whirlpool began, obscuring Gel Sadra's clouded form even further. All anyone could see was something pink in the center of the tank. 

"Will the procedure hurt her?" Pandora asked. 

"No. Her sensory apparatus and higher brain functions have been entirely shut down. She will remain in a trance state, feeling nothing, thinking nothing, until it comes time to remove her from the tank." 

"All the same, I'll stay with her," Pandora said.

* * *

Pandora was as good as her word, leaving the laboratory only to sleep. Marriochio did not even leave for that-- she had a cot and a bathroom with a shower installed just off the lab. In the beginning, she had food brought up-- after that, if Pandora didn't get the food and make Marriochio eat it, she would forget about it. The two of them almost never talked. Marriochio became totally absorbed in the work, to the point where she seemed to forget Pandora was even there. The pale color of her skin vanished, as she was too involved to bother putting on her white cosmetic paste-- but if anything, this only made her face look more haggard and gray. Scientists often came in to study her monitors-- Selina ignored them, and did not answer their questions. Pandora, who was watching as Selina performed the work, had figured out the meaning of some things, and explained them quietly to those who asked. Selina ignored that, too. She was constantly studying the monitors herself, adjusting computer images of Gel Sadra's body, altering flows, performing robotic manipulations. 

And it seemed to be working. Though the interior of the tank had grown progressively more murky, it was still possible to see that Gel Sadra was shrinking. The computer images showed bizarre states of transformation-- a person with the head and torso of a woman but a child's limbs, that sort of thing-- but as they reached the end of the third week, the image had acquired some stability. The body displayed was a child's-- only the head was too big. Selina spent the whole next week just on the head, as the shrinkage of the brain was the most difficult and delicate part of all. 

Then came the day when the operation was ended, and Sammie Pandora would be released.

* * *

Again, there were several dozen scientists there. Pandora no longer possessed any of Sammie's old clothes, and there was no guarantee that she was now quite the same size she had been at three anyway, so Dr. Lara Remington, of the genetics department, had thoughtfully brought some of her Alatan's hand-me-downs. Alatan herself was there, a 10-year-old girl with a cold, knowing expression and an intensity that chilled Selina, evoking strange half-memories in her. 

Marriochio opened the tank, and the float came up, its occupant obscured by tubes. As the apparatus retracted, it revealed a small girl of about four with a shaved head, who blinked her eyes open. Pandora lifted her, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Sammie, Sammie!" she cried, hugging her daughter to herself. 

"Mommy?" Sammie asked, looking around. "Where am I? Who is everybody?" 

"Sammie, you're all right, oh, I love you, I love you..." 

Sammie put her arms around her mother. "I love you too, Mommy. Don't cry, it's all right. It's all right, Mommy." She put her hand up and patted her mother's bowed head. Then she looked down at herself. "Oh, no! Mommy, I have no clothes on! I need to get dressed, quick!" 

Everyone laughed with relief. Pandora sheltered her daughter from the eyes she feared as Sammie got dressed in Alatan Remington's hand-me-downs. As soon as Sammie was dressed, Pandora turned around and addressed Selina, her eyes brimming with tears. "Thank you. Thank you for giving me back my daughter." 

Selina said nothing-- she was that tactful, at least, not to comment that she didn't do it for Pandora's sake. Pandora took Sammie's hand and led her out of the room, as the scientists crowded around Selina. 

"How did you reduce the brain to a 4-year-old level of development?" 

"The vocabulary-- that's amazing! How much of Gel Sadra's vocabulary was provided by Sosai X, and how much did she learn on her own?" 

"What will be the extent of the child's memories?" 

"I didn't come here to answer questions," Selina said brutally. "I came to get a job done. If I decide to publish my findings, I will let you know." 

"Do you mean to say that you've undertaken this study without intending to publish?" 

"I mean to say nothing. Dr. Nambu! You are welcome to have my apparatus dismantled or studied or destroyed or whatever you like. I am leaving." She put her disks into her briefcase, picked up her satchel, and walked out.

* * *

Outside, the girl Alatan caught up with her. "It won't do you any good, Selina," she said in a curiously adult voice. 

Selina turned. "What are you bothering me about?" 

"The Earth. The twins. The boy is close enough for me to control, and the girl will answer my call no matter what you do." 

"What are you talking about? Who _are_ you?" 

The girl laughed, a sinister adult laugh. "Two people. The body is the child of those twins, and the mind is their creator, and yours. I created this body to serve my needs, Selina, and it will do me very well. It _was_ , once, Berg Katse's daughter. Now..." She laughed again. "Now it is home to an agent from space. I am X!" 

"You-- are-- " Selina felt frozen, staring, as Sosai X in the body of Berg Katse's daughter laughed again. 

"I will call my children to me, Selina. You cannot stop me."

* * *

Elsewhere, Sammie Pandora was chatting vivaciously with a fascinated Ken, while Nambu spoke to Pandora. "From Gel Sadra's information, it's all too evident that Galactor will form again," he said quietly. "I've been offered the position of ISO Director-- which means that I may not be able to concentrate as much of my effort as I'd like on this new threat. I need an Assistant Director heading the defense and security department. Would you accept it?" 

"Would I--? Dr. Nambu, you should know better than to ask," Pandora laughed. More seriously, she said, "Of course I want to help you in any way I can-- even if that means being 'saddled with the paperwork of a thousand little minds' devise,' as you once put it." 

"Excellent," Nambu said, with warmth in his voice. "Thank you, Dr. Pandora. Without your help over the past six months, I don't know if we could have succeeded." He glanced at Sammie, who was listening raptly to Ken's description of flying in an airplane. "You have done for us what no one else could have." 

"It was only my duty," Pandora said quietly. "And it was the only chance of happiness I had. Now, with my daughter returned to me, I feel as if I'm the one who has been reborn." 

"Perhaps you both have," Nambu said, and smiled. 

Neither of them saw an older child, with ancient eyes, watching them with a cold smile.


End file.
